Civility
September 16, 2020
Harvard Psychologist, Mahzarin Banaji coined the term “thumbprint of my culture.” She and many others have studied implicit bias. These are biases we all have and use without conscious awareness. Our brain works fast to make decisions constantly and develop mental shortcuts. These shortcuts become our biases. Cognitive scientists have categorized over a hundred biases. The categories called the SEEDS Model stands for Similarity, Expedience, Experience, Distance and Safety. Similarity is often referred to an ingroup vs. outgroup. We perceive people who are similar more positively and those who are different more negatively. Expedience bias is if it feels […]
July 16, 2020
David Kessler, an expert on grief described three ways people respond to a crisis. There are those who panic, unsure of what to do or how to cope; those who are moving along with guidance they have been given; and those who want others to calm down and get back to business as usual. Kessler uses the label of grief to explain the loss of control. The loss of how we used to live as well as anticipatory grief – the raw uncertainty of our family’s health and well-being. Three groups of employees are described in Kessler’s HBR article, Helping […]
June 22, 2020
Living through, or even observing these moral, economic and health crises continue to unfold is taking an emotional toll. We have three choices in response to a crisis. We can fight, flight, or freeze. We can move in with high energy and take control; we can move away, going about our business in denial, or we can stop. People have moved through heroism and adaptation at this point in the pandemic crisis and are finding themselves depleted. We recognize our lost certainty, command, and control. Apathy, anxiety, fear, anger, and grief are consuming and disrupting us. It’s time to become […]
May 25, 2020
David Rock, Ph.D. coined the acronym SCARF which stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness. These are the five domains that influence us emotionally, much of the time as a threat. Leaders can mitigate the impact of SCARF threats by creating some SCARF rewards. Status Common status threats include not being able to influence work decisions, feeling one’s opinions or concerns are minimized, being a target of sarcasm or ridicule, and feeling disrespected. Leaders can work to diminish this threat through soliciting employee concerns and perspectives, active listening, demonstrating vulnerability (I’m having a hard time with this, too) and […]